SAN DIEGO-McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. has topped out steel construction for the new 206,000-gross-square-foot, four-story Math and Science Building at San Diego Mesa College, located at 7250 Mesa College Dr. in the Clairemont area. San Diego Community College District representatives, the college faculty members and project team members gathered recently to commemorate the milestone with a traditional topping-out ceremony that included a signed beam with an evergreen tree and American flag being placed atop the four-story building that cost $112 million to construct.

As GlobeSt.com previously reported, McCarthy began construction for the building in August 2011, and new construction is being funded by the $1.555-billion Propositions S and N construction bond program, which is providing for new teaching and learning facilities, major renovations and campus infrastructure projects at Mesa, City and Miramar colleges, and six continuing education campuses.

“Students and faculty members can look forward to this being an exceptional facility, representing the largest and one of the most complex projects being built on the San Diego Mesa College campus with Proposition S and N construction bonds,” says David Umstot, vice chancellor of facilities management for the District. “Construction is going smoothly, and we’re on target for completion in August of next year.”

Designed by architects Delawie Wilkes Rodrigues Barker, the new building will provide new educational space for students pursuing degree and certificate programs in biology, chemistry, physical sciences and mathematics. It will house four floors of classrooms, computer classrooms and teaching lab classrooms, as well as faculty, staff and administrative support space. Specialized areas will include a greenhouse and an astronomy observation center.

The project team is targeting LEED Silver Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. All classrooms, teaching laboratories and the majority of the staff offices will optimize the use of natural daylight. The windows will utilize high-performance, low “E” glazing that will allow natural daylight to enter the building, while rejecting unwanted ultraviolet and infrared light waves. This, in turn, will help reduce the amount of energy required to condition the building. The roofing construction will consist of a cool-roof material, which will also reflect unwanted energy and reduce the amount of energy consumed.

In September 2010, the USGBC awarded LEED Gold Certification to the three-story, 50,000-square-foot Allied Health Education and Training Facility at San Diego Mesa College, on which McCarthy served as construction manager on behalf of the District. That project was completed in August 2009.

A spokesperson for McCarthy tells GlobeSt.com that no other projects are currently in the pipeline between McCarthy and the college, but as the largest educational facilities building in California, the construction firm has been involved with a number of educational projects in San Diego recently, including the construction of a $105 million, 196,000-square-foot Health Sciences Biomedical Research Facility in La Jolla, on which GlobeSt.com previously reported. The project, part of an ongoing expansion at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, broke ground in April 2011 and is expected to be completed in August 2013. The spokesperson tells GlobeSt.com that the building will be similar in complexity to the Math and Science Building at San Diego Mesa College. Another similar project for McCarthy that GlobeSt.com previously reported on is a new California facility for the J. Craig Venter Institute, a not-for-profit genomics research institute, which broke ground in September 2011 and is slated to be completed in 2013.

Instant Insights /

Flag Ceremony Held for $112M College Building

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